


Nightmares, Maggots and Gummy Worms

by CCaptainRex



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Minor Violence, Nightmares, Ronan Lynch & Blue Sargent Friendship, Ronan needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:48:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25194181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CCaptainRex/pseuds/CCaptainRex
Summary: Ronan has had nightmares where he's watched everyone he's ever loved die.It's Blue's turn.
Relationships: Ronan Lynch & Blue Sargent
Kudos: 48





	Nightmares, Maggots and Gummy Worms

Ronan is no stranger to nightmares. They haunt him when he sleeps, and haunt him when he's awake, pulling things from his dreams and into reality. He's dreamt up good things, and bad, of Adam dying in his arms and Gansey being stung by wasps and Noah rotting in the ground and never coming back. He's dreamt of Matthew. Declan. His parents. Weird kids from Aglionby, Kavinsky.

He has, however, never dreamt of Maggot. Blue. Jane. Whatever you want to call her. A recent addition, but it was still strange how she hadn't invaded his dream space yet. Honestly, he was kinda glad - it was annoying enough to have her in reality. 

But tonight something was different. Tonight black clouds rolled over his dreamscape and the trees rattled and the Orphan Girl was nowhere to be found and Blue was crying in front of him. She had her head bowed, spiky hair everywhere, but he could tell from the sound she was crying. 

"Sargent?" She looked up, tears streaming down her face in fear. "What's wrong?" 

"Leave." She runs deep into the woods, and Ronan thinks that maybe this is where the dream ends. A dark omen about Blue, or something. A creature soared overhead, and for once didn't go for him. It went for something deeper in the brush, and Ronan heard a distinctly female, maggot-esque scream. 

He ran towards the noise, whipping past trees and bushes and found Blue in the claws of the thing and it had torn her already torn tank top and blood soaked through it. Another creature grabs him and holds him on the spot, and despite how much he struggles he helplessly watches the beast tear into Blue and hears her beg, to him, the beast, and tears follow. He's used to her being a little spitfire and watching her break hurt more than he'd like to admit. 

With a grunt, he slams his head behind him and head-butts the giant bird-monster-beast, and runs to Blue, who's arm is now cut up and Ronan's pretty sure he sees bone. He grabbed her arm to tug her free and the thing let go, the force tumbling them both to the ground. On instinct, he rolled to be on top of her to protect her from it, and he felt claws at his back and hands clutching his leather jacket. 

"Please, make it stop." Ronan spat out a curse at the hoarse sound of her voice and rolled over to try and fight the beast, but found a clear sky above him. It was gone, with the clouds, and the overhanging sense of doom. What remained was Blue, crying, and he sat her up to evaluate the damage. "Make it stop!" 

"It's gone." Ronan realizes she's not talking about the beast and clutches her side where blood spills out. 

"I don't want to go, make it stop! Please!" She's begging, tears pouring down her face, and Ronan applies pressure to the wound but ends up hurting her more by the scream she lets out. It's so realistic, her sobbing, and a memory is tossed at him. One of Matthew, when he was younger having a bad dream and crying at Ronan's door. "I'm scared," Its Blue who says it, but Ronan hears many voices echo it. Adams. His. Matthews. 

"You're fine, Maggot." She reaches up to pull him into a hug and he loops an arm around her to keep her upright. "You're fine." She's not fine and presses her face into his neck with another sob. 

"It hurts," Ronan pulls himself up to cradle her, like a small child, and it's like she's gotten more wounds the longer she's here, a cut now on her cheek and a long cut up her neck. "I don't want to go, Ronan. Please," 

Its the first time she's uttered his name and he can't help the fact tears burn at the back of his eye, and he gently starts to rock back and forth. "Everything's going to be okay, it's just a dream." He knows it's a dream. 

"I don't want to die." She starts to still, and Ronan watches as life slowly drains from her. 

"Maggot?" She doesn't stir at the name. "Sargent? Blue?" It feels wrong to say her name. She looks up at him, one last time, and clutches at his hand. It's so small compared to his. "Everything's going to be okay." 

With a gasp, she's gone, and Ronan is left holding her body. It feels so real, so viscerally real, that when Ronan wakes he expects to hear Gansey crying over her death or to have her dead body with him. Instead, he's covered in blood (not his own) and when he's able, he runs out of his room. 

"Maggot." Gansey looks up, concerned at the blood, and Ronan cuts him off before he speaks. "Blue?" 

"She's at home, Ronan-What's going on? Are you hurt?" He shakes his head and grabs his keys from where he's dropped them on Ganseys desk, moving his way to the car. "Ronan! You can't leave looking like that!" 

Ronan doesn't care that he looks like he's just murdered someone. Right now, he needs to see Maggot. 

*

Blue wakes to the sound of rocks on her window. Which, at this point, she isn't shocked by, with the late-night meetings and missions to Cabeswater. 

What she's shocked by is the fact it's only Ronan, not even Chainsaw, standing outside looking like he's been hit by a car. Blue wastes no time bolting down the stairs, even as the others yell at her for making a racket, and she opens the door to find Ronan propped up on the hood of his BMW. 

"Lynch? Are you hurt?" He shakes his head and gets up, and walks towards her. She expects that she's being picked up to go somewhere, or someone else is hurt, but instead, Ronan grabs her arm none too gently and pulls her into a hug. It's Ronan, so it's not a warm or tender thing, but it's still a hug and Ronan finally lets out a breath when her arms loop around him. "Ronan?" 

\--I don't want to go, Ronan. Please,--

"Are you hurt?" Ronan asks, but he knows the answer. It's just a dream. She's fine, and probably going to go around smugly telling everyone he showed up at ungodly hours of the night just to check on her. 

"I'm fine, what's going on?" She's still nestled nicely against his chest, not like before, not the desperate pleading or grasping to save her, just kind of an awkward hug because she doesn't want to push any boundaries. 

"Had a dream with you in it, Maggot." He expects a comment or something, some snarky reply, and she just looks up at him knowingly. "Blood's yours." 

She peels back and wipes blood from her forearms. "Ew." She moves her arm and Ronan sees a flash of bone. It's not there, but it still makes his stomach churn. "I'm fine." 

\--You're fine, Maggot.--

"Good." He stuffs his hands into his pockets and takes a step back. "That was all. Sorry for waking you." 

"It's alright." She gestures towards the house. "Want to come in for some yogurt?" 

"No." He walks inside anyway, and he realizes that this is the first time they've both hung out together, alone. They're always with the group, and when they aren't, neither of them are gunning to spend alone time with the other. He sits on the kitchen counter, ever the rule breaker, and to his surprise, a bag of candy is pressed into his hands by Persephone who just smiles and keeps going without a word. 

"Where the hell she'd get those?" Blue reaches to get one and Ronan holds the bag over her head, and she scowls and jumps to get them before winding up and nailing him in the shin and making him share. "I get no candy and then you show up and apparently we have a stockpile." 

"Hey, I need it." His mouth is full of gummy worms. He's not lying either, hoping the food covers the edge to his voice. He needs something to ground him, to take him away of images of death and Blue's blood and honestly, gummy worms are doing the trick. So is Blue, just standing by the fridge, but to a lesser effect.

Blue studies him before nodding and tearing into a yogurt cup. "I'm alright, I promise." She says softly, and normally he'd hate the tone that comes with the others and his dreams. But the way she says it is like a knowing thing, that she understands. He seriously doubts she ever will, but it's a nice gesture. "Was it bad?" 

"Watched you die. Not something I want to repeat." She places a hand over her heart with a smile. 

"Aw, you care!" He rolls his eyes and takes another handful of gummy worms and feels vaguely like Chainsaw when she devours real worms. She joins him on the counter, and they sit in comfortable silence for a while. 

"Are you afraid of dying, Blue?" Her head snaps up at her real name, and the look on Ronan's face is far from a taunt or a random question. It's studying, harsh, and almost scared. Dream-Blue was begging not to go. Real Blue likely would too.

She just shrugs, digging through her cup absentmindedly. "Yes. Maybe. I don't want to die young, and I don't want any of you to die, and I-" She cuts herself off, but Ronan can guess what she's going to say. 'I don't want my true love to die because of me.' 

(What she really meant was that she didn't want to see Gansey die, the day coming closer and closer with every adventure and meeting.)

"Curses are a bitch, huh?" She laughs and bumps Ronan's shoulder with her own. Silence settles back over them, and Blue keeps glancing from her yogurt to him. 

"Are you afraid to die, Ronan?" That's the million-dollar question. Everyone thinks he's this big, uncaring asshole and to be honest, he's not afraid to die. 

"I'm afraid to let those around me die. Or what will happen to others after I die." Blue nods solemnly, and Ronan's starting to think that maybe Maggot joining the friend group wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Not that he'd ever admit that out loud, no. Noah appears beside Blue and messes with her hair, and Ronan tosses a gummy worm at his face. "We're having a moment, Noah." He says with a snort, and Blue just glares at him. "Why'd you show up?" 

Noah shrugs and picks up the worm, tossing it back at him. "Heard death, thought maybe you were talking about me." 

"No, not every dead thing is about you." Noah sticks his tongue out at Ronan before dissipating, and Ronan chews on the worm Noah threw at him. "Weirdo." 

"Look whose talking." Ronan shoves her hard enough she slips from the counter with a gasp, and she scowls at him. "And to think I provided you with good candy." 

"I think you'll find Persephone did, not you." He finishes the bag and tosses it into the trash, before slipping from the counter himself. "Thanks for that. Needed it." She smiles up at him and walks him to the car, and Ronan hesitates by the car door. "Don't, um, bring up tonight will you?" 

She crosses over her heart with a smile. "I'll take it to the grave." Normally, if it was anyone else, he'd think they're joking. But he believes her, for some reason. 

"Thanks, Sargent." She gives a small salute, like Gansey, and Ronan thinks maybe the two have been spending too much time together. 

"No problem, Lynch." The next day, when they're trudging through Cabeswater and messing around, Blue doesn't say a word about the night before, or the hug, and Noah doesn't either. Gansey doesn't ask, and Adam doesn't know, and Ronan goes nightmare free for one more day. 


End file.
